How To: Do The Laundry

Simple Techniques To Keep Your Duds Clean

Tired of wearing that old t-shirt of yours to work because you don't know how to do your own laundry? Sick of wearing your underwear inside out because you're too lazy to wash them yourself?

Tired of racking up dry cleaning bills for fear of screwing up the laundry — again? Well the good news is, you don't need your girlfriend to continuously do your laundry for you — it really isn't as hard as you think. Just follow these easy instructions, and laundry will no longer feel like such an annoying, pesky task.

When to launder

That's it — you're down to one pair of pants, it's definitely time to do the laundry. It's probably best not to wait until all your clothes are dirty before doing the laundry.

Since some articles of clothing are better off being hung to dry rather than being put in the dryer, you may not have all your clothes clean and dry for the next day.

Make it a point to schedule laundry time in your schedule. Do this on a night or afternoon that you know you'll be staying in and it won't get in the way of Monday Night Football at your best friend's house.

Weekend mornings are a good time to do the laundry, especially if you're a morning person. The point is, laundry doesn't take more than an hour to do, especially if you have a washer and dryer at home, so just stick it in your schedule and try not to put it off too long.

Starting off

Remember to read the care labels of your clothes before washing them yourself. Some article labels indicate that they are not recommended for the dryer, but rather need to be washed with cold water, or not go in the washing machine at all. Dry cleaning may be better for articles you care for, more expensive items, or more delicate fabrics such as nylon or wool.

Step 1

Separate the colored clothes from the whites, unless you want all your clothes tie-dyed, of course. You're going to be doing a load of whites and colors separately.

Step 2

Once you have the clothes set in front of you, turn the machine on. When setting the machine at respective temperatures, you're better off choosing warm water to wash the clothes, cold to rinse. Using hot water to wash clothes is not only more expensive, but it should not be used to wash cotton clothing.

Once you have chosen the temperature setting of your load, set the machine at the type of load you are doing. This step is pretty self-explanatory — for small loads, such as only a few t-shirts and underwear, set the machine for a small load, and for larger loads, select large. Unless you haven't done your laundry in two weeks, you'll probably have medium size loads.

Step 3

Turn the machine on and put the necessary amount of detergent into the washer. Use the cup provided in the box or bottle of detergent to measure the necessary amount.

Allow the detergent to mix and rinse with the water before putting the clothes in the washer.

Liquid detergent may make for a more effective wash, since powder detergent doesn't always dissolve as properly.

For the load of whites, bleach is recommended to whiten your clothes even more and help remove stains more effectively. Avoid getting bleach on yourself or your clothes. Add the bleach before putting your clothes into the washer.

Step 4

Dump your dirty clothes into the washer (remember, one load for lights, another for darks).

Check the manual of your washing machine — some machines require you to put your clothes in the machine before the detergent.

An extra tip: When washing articles with a print or in a specific color, washing clothes inside out helps to preserve the color of the article, and avoids the color or pattern from looking washed out. Now that you know how to wash your clothes, do you know how to dry them?